Updates Regarding Cases Involving Filipino Seamen

Filipino seamen on foreign flag vessels must sign a standard contract regulated by the Philippine government, known as the POEA contract, which requires arbitration of any injury claims against the employer in the Philippines under Philippine law. But awards in the Philippines are comparatively low, and Filipino seamen have been trying for years to escape the arbitration and choice of law clauses in the POEA contract. Those efforts have been almost entirely rejected in the U.S., so two (2) enterprising Filipino seamen recently sought to pursue claims in the Marshall Islands, a former U.S. protectorate that applies U.S. general maritime law and one of the largest ship registries in the world.

Peter Sloss had previously reported on one of our cases, Asignacion v. Rickmers, in which a Filipino seamen injured on a Marshall Islands flag vessel while in New Orleans sought, without success, first to avoid the arbitration clause and pursue claims in the Louisiana courts, and then to avoid the Philippine arbitral award. In April 2015, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Philippine arbitral award was enforceable, ending Asignacion’s bid to pursue personal injury claims in the U.S. courts. Asignacion v. Rickmers, 783 F.3d 1010 (5th Circuit 2015). 

After losing in the U.S., Asignacion filed suit on the same claims in the Marshall Islands.   On June 20, 2018, the Marshall Islands Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s dismissal of Asignacion’s Marshall Islands suit as time barred, ending Asignacion’s final attempt to escape the POEA contract and the arbitral award issued pursuant to that contract.

Also of interest, in another suit in the Marshall Islands, Mongaya v. AET MCV Beta LLC, et al, plaintiff argued that Marshall Islands law precluded enforcement of the arbitration and choice of law clauses in the POEA contract as to all Filipino seamen serving on Marshall Islands flag vessels. In a decision issued today, the RMI Supreme Court rejected plaintiff’s arguments and held that the POEA contract’s requirement of arbitration in the Philippines under Philippine law is enforceable in the RMI.  The full opinion can be found here – Link to opinion.

Link to opinion